‘Nal Se Jal scheme’ destined to fail in current form, says ‘Waterman of India’

Magsaysay award winning water conservationist Rajendra Singh says merely installing taps a waste of money; need to involve local community

Water conservationist Rajendra Singh (Photo courtesy: Social media)
Water conservationist Rajendra Singh (Photo courtesy: Social media)
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Ashlin Mathew

The Modi government’s poll promise of “Nal se Jal”, which is to provide piped drinking water to all households by 2024, is unlikely to happen, says one of India’s most well-known water conservationist. “The government will be able to install taps in several districts, but no water will flow through these taps. These taps will not serve any purpose unless water conservation is made a decentralised community-driven programme,” says Rajendra Singh, an environmentalist better known by the moniker, ‘Waterman of India’.

Speaking on the sidelines of a programme, Singh said, “If India has to be made a water-surplus nation, then the ministry will have to work on a ‘Jal-Jan jodo’ programme. They have to link people with the sources of water. Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken in one of his Mann Ki Baat episodes about Panchayat heads working towards conserving water, but it can’t be all talk. The ground reality is extremely different,” said Singh.

The government also has no community-driven training programmes to ensure that people will efficiently use water in their fields or homes, he pointed out.

If the government wants to ensure piped drinking water for everyone, it needs to have a working plan on the ground, added Singh, who was awarded the Magsaysay award in 2001 for his conservation efforts. He is credited with helping revive more than 11,500 water bodies across the country with the help of the local community.

The Jal Shakti ministry, which was created by merging the ministries of Water Resources, Drinking Water and Sanitation and Namami Gange project, has stated that it has identified 255 water-stressed districts. It said that the first priority was to install taps in these places, and that it has set up nodal teams led by additional secretaries and joint secretaries.

Singh is not impressed by the move. “This is not a concrete plan. The government’s first priority is to get taps in these places. They want to spend huge funds for this, and they want to link rivers as well. In all of this, only bigger companies will benefit. None of these policies will actually help the poor villager who has no water. That is why if this government is serious about ensuring piped water for everyone, it must work out how the poor of the country can access water,” observed Singh.


However, the Jal Shakti ministry has no such initiatives on its cards. “If people have to work towards conserving water, then the community must be empowered first and we have to ensure water rights to everyone in the community. First of all, since the government has not ensured water as a right to everyone, why will the community work towards it? The government wants to own the water and it wants the community to work to save it. How can that work?” Singh pointed out.

Singh underscored that the government and the ministry were not really interested in conserving and ensuring water for all. “If they were, a Water Security Act would have been enacted by the government.”

Such an Act must give people ownership of the community water. “We need decentralised, community management of water. The government can’t say that the panchayat must ensure water harvesting methods and then deny them ownership of that water. They also need to be involved in the decision-making process, else they would have no interest in improving the situation. They have not even earmarked funds for any of this nor have they planned for it,” added Singh.

“If poor people have to benefit from such government policies, then rainwater harvesting is the best way. We need to manage our rain and increasing our green cover is the only way to counter this changing climate. We should not be focusing on building pipelines only,” remarked Singh.

In India, there are more than 10 crore water bodies, he said. “These water bodies need to be first taken care of. And water bodies that have dried up must be rejuvenated. We also must look at recharging our underground aquifers,” Singh said.

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